Deja Vu
by BeyondxBroken
Summary: Some memories are just hard to let go. As Therese tags along with the Elric Brothers in solving cases that may be connected to the murder of her father, she is haunted by thoughts from her past which may lead them to the killers. Pairings may occur.


**A/N: My best friend and I cooperated in making this little chapter so…hope you guys like it! Don't forget to comment and review once you have the chance!**

**CHAPTER ONE: UNFORGETTABLE MEMORIES**

_A little 6 year old girl stood in front of a burning mansion._

"_Dad? Where are you?" The little girl, apparently named Therese Lyman, said frantically searching for her father the retired General Ben Lyman amongst the crowd that gathered to witness the crumbling down of the mansion._

_Suddenly, she heard a whisper coming from the back of the crowd._

"_This certainly is a tragedy. I heard he still had a little girl. Even younger than my 8 year old son." A woman said to a person beside her._

_Therese felt her eyes widen for fear of the worse._

"_No! You're lying!" she said as she ran towards the crumbling mansion thinking of desperate means of finding her father inside._

"_Therese, no!" An officer luckily caught sight of Therese's actions and managed to stop her through holding her slender shoulders._

"_Let me go! Let me go!" She demanded, trying to get away from the firm grasp of the old officer._

"_Therese, you can't! It's too dangerous!" The officer, named Kent Thompson, said tightening his grasp._

"_Daddy's inside! I have to get him out of there!" She said, struggling to get away._

"_Listen, we officers searched the whole mansion before the fire got as fierce as this. We unfortunately found your father lying flat on his face at his study." Officer Thompson said sadly._

"_And you didn't even get him out?!" Therese demanded, now facing the old man._

"_We didn't have time Therese. Right then, when we were about to enter the room, a huge wooden plank fell from the roof and blocked our only entrance."_

"_No… Why? He's my only family…" She cried, kneeling down on the grass underneath her feet._

"_I don't know as well, Therese. But if he was here right now with us, he wouldn't want you to get hurt no would he?" The officer said, bending down to comfort the crying girl._

_And together with the crowd, they watched the fire from the mansion cool down until all that was left was just a huge pile of ash._

"Great, just another boring day…" The present 14 year old Therese Lyman groaned out loud.

"I must have been sleeping again." She yawned as she remembered the same dream she has been having ever since the day of the incident.

'A recalling, maybe.' She thought to herself.

"_Dad? What are we doing here? I thought we were going to the park to feed the baby ducklings!" The 6 year old Therese complained to her father, the General._

"_Have patience sweetie, I just need to visit an old friend." Her father responded, holding onto her small left hand._

_Therese remembered walking through a wide blue hallway with white doors on each side. And inside the doors, there were voices._

"_What are those Dad? Ghosts?" She asked, walking closer to his side._

"_No, Therese. Those are just ordinary people. Their voices seem hollow because they're inside the closed room." The General said as they stopped at the end of the hallway._

'_Still seems creepy.' Therese thought to herself as they entered the door to their left. She noticed that her father's grasp on her hand tightened as they entered._

_There in front of them was a man in his 30's, sitting comfortably on a chair behind a desk. He was a tall man, and his eyeglasses were his best trademark._

_Once he saw the General though, he immediately stood straight and saluted._

"_Sir?" The man said unsurely, putting his right hand back down._

"_Lieutenant Colonel, from this moment, I leave the safety of my daughter on your capable hands…Maes." The General said, looking at a confused Therese on his side._

"_Ben? What happened." The Lieutenant Colonel demanded._

_In 3 simple words, the General responded._

"_I'm being chased."_

'I don't remember anything after that. Damn it, I should have been listening to their conversation.' Therese regretted.

Therese was a rebellious girl. She always fought for what she believed was correct. She has shoulder lengthed dark brown silky straight hair, a mysterious glint on her ebony eyes and a personality which everyone would easily get along with. She also has a strange habit of finishing whatever she starts.

_At the park, Therese noticed that her father wasn't all too happy in doing their daily routine._

'_It must be something about what happened earlier.' _

_She tried her best to cheer him up and make him laugh. But even if her father smiled, she knew him all too well that it was just a lonely smile._

_After 3 days, the fire happened._

_Officer Thompson brought her to Central Headquarters to meet Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes, as he requested._

_Maes Hughes treated her like his own daughter. Giving her everything she needed and once of proper age, made her his subordinate, with the Fuhrer's permission of course. Though she was already part of the military at 12 years of age she never wore the uniformed attire. She described it as "plain and disgusting" and preferred to wear her everyday clothing._

A silent opening of the office door caused her thoughts to fly away. The person who entered the office seemed to act as if a baby was still sleeping in his crib.

"Don't worry Uncle. I'm awake." Therese called out to the present Brigadier General Maes Hughes as he entered into sight.

"Oh, Therese! Good thing too because I've been coming in and out 3 times and yet all I find is a girl sleeping on her desk." He smiled, putting a file folder on his desk.

"Hey, what's that?" Therese asked, getting up from her place and walking towards the Brigadier General's huge mahogany desk.

"Oh, this." He replied, holding up the folder. "You'll find out soon." He smiled as he returned it to his desk.

"Fine." Therese grunted, thinking it was some kind of joke.

"Therese? I need you to do something right now." The Brigadier General said, stopping Therese from getting back to her desk.

"Huh? What's up?"

"First, can you just stand there? An important person's about to come in any second."

"Uh, sure. So do I have to salute or anything?" She asked, raising her right hand in preparation.

"No need. He doesn't care anyway---"

The Brigadier General stopped as a heard a loud voice echoing from the hallway outside.

"What's the damn mission about?!" A voice of a boy said angrily.

"Is that him?" She asked, pointing outside.

"Ya, and never call him short."

"Eh?"

"So what's the mission Brigadier General?!" A blonde said impatiently as he banged open the door.

Therese noticed that the blonde was accompanied by a hulking armored man.

'This is the weirdest combination I've ever seen!' She thought to herself.

"Yo, Ed! Have you met my new subordinate?" The Brigadier General said, trying to introduce Therese to them.

"Brother, don't be rude! Greet her first!" The armored man said, noticing Therese by the side.

"Fine, then. Hello. Good morning. How're you doing? Nice weather we're having?" He said, really quickly then turned once more to the Brigadier General.

'That was quick! So much for a proper introduction.' She thought.

"Let me introduce them Therese." The Brigadier General said, cutting the blonde in mid-sentence.

"This is the famous Fullmetal Alchemist, Edward Elric. And this's his younger brother, Alphonse Elric. A skilled alchemist as well." He finished.

"Pleased to meet you two. Especially you Mr. Edward. I'm Therese Lyman." She said bowing respectfully.

Edward just snorted as a response.

"Pleased to meet you too." Alphonse said as well.

"Can we please get to the matter at hand now?" Edward pleaded to the Brigadier General.

"Okay, here it is. I just got it from the Colonel a little while ago." He answered, handing Edward the file folder on his desk.

"So what's it about?" Alphonse asked.

"Apparently a murder and kidnapped case" Brigadier Hughes answered while Edward kept on reading through the file.

"The usual right? "Edward asked not looking up.

"Ya, find the murderers, bring them back to Central and have them tried." The Brigadier General said.

'So that's what it was!' Therese thought.

"So where should we start? " Alphonse asked.

"They say that the first murder happened at the town at the west of Lior. So you have to catch a train as soon as possible." He answered.

"Why so soon?" Alphonse asked.

"Because the last train leaving Central today is at 11:00 and it's already 10:30" Therese explained.

"So that's why Colonel Mustang woke at 9 this morning, right brother?"

"Shut up. That's one reason already for my crankiness." Edward responded, putting the file back and heading for the door.

"Wait a minute, Ed." The Brigadier General instructed then he whispered something on Therese's right ear.

"I think you should go with them, Therese. We have a lead already that 2 of the murderers had a strong grudge against your father when he was still alive. They hated him because although your father didn't do much, he was still a favorite in the eyes of the Fuhrer."

"So they maybe the ones?" Therese asked sobbing slightly

"I'd help you find them, right? So what's your decision?" He asked straightening up.

"Yes, Sir." She said with a determined look in her eyes.

"Oh, and just in case." He said handing her a pistol from his side pocket. "You remember how to use it, right?"

Therese got the gun, saluted and went out the door before the 2 brothers could.

"What was that about?" Edward mouthed to Alphonse.

"No idea." Alphonse answered.

"Oh, you 2 don't mind if she tags along, right?" The Brigadier General asked, which caused the 2 to look at him.

"Uh, sure." Edward smiled.

"Ya. I mean, whatever you told her motivated her to do something. It might be important so… it's okay." Alphonse finished.

"Please protect her."

"We will!" The 2 brothers responded as they bolted out of the door, catching up to Therese.

"And I'll prepare a car to take you to the train station faster." He called out, getting the phone already.

"Thanks!" Was the last word he heard.

Once everyone was gone, he phoned someone.

"I'm giving you a duty. It's urgent."

---------------------------------------------------------

Therese neared the end of the hallway with the pistol still on her right hand.

'It's finally time.' Therese grinned.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard loud footsteps running at her back.

"Hey! Wait up!" A voice, Therese recognized as Edward's, echoed. This caused her to turn around.

"I'm really sorry but is it okay for me to come along?" Therese asked once they were both at her side.

"Denise, right?" Alphonse asked.

"Therese, actually but close enough." She answered, putting the weapon at the pocket of her pants.

"It's okay. Don't worry. What you're about to do seems important so we figured, we might be able to help you along the way." Edward smiled, encouragely.

"Thank you so much Mr. Edward!" Therese said.

"One more thing." Edward said.

"What is it?" She asked.

"Call me Ed. I'm not really that formal myself." He shrugged.

"Okay, Mr…, I mean, Ed." Therese said, as they exited Central Headquarters.


End file.
